My Sunbeam

January 4th, 2009
He was not wanting me to take his picture because it was cold and he wanted to get inside, but this is him on his 1st day as a sunbeam.

Ben is now a Sunbeam! He had a hard time going for a few weeks and even last Sunday someone came to get me because he was crying, but by the time I got there he was ok and his teacher was able to send me away before he even saw me. That evening Tyler and I were talking to Ben about him having a hard time and he said that he was crying but he was ok, then he said, "I like Sister Scott now!" So, we'll see how next Sunday goes. I am very glad that he has Sister Scott for a teacher and I think by the time he's ready for CTR 4 he's not going to want to leave her.

Melissa, here is my ride.

You asked for it! I wasn't going to post mine because I actually look like an idiot going down and I hurt myself pretty badly right at the end of the run. You might be able to hear it in my voice that there is a little more than just excitement there. Just beneath the snow right where I slide off the saucer there was a small tree trunk sticking up and my thigh slid right over it. To make matters worse, I was done sledding and then they found a good run, so I had already taken off my gloves and my snow pants. I was wearing thin cotton pants that the tree scraped me right through and my hands got pretty sore from sliding on the ice. I was not planning on falling off of my saucer.

Don't try this at home kids.

You saw the beach, now here's the snow!

January 19, 2009

The boys have been begging to take a drive up to the snow and since we had a day off we decided to take advantage of it. Sadly there wasn't very much snow at all, and what snow there was was very hard and a lot of it was dirty, blech! We made the best of it though and found a pretty good run, scroll down for video.

Benji is quite a poser!

Ben took a slide without his saucer for a bit and had a few injuries, see his cheek and forhead? Oh, and we can't forget his pinkie, you might have to enlarge the pic to see it.

Avila

On the last day of the year we headed to the beach. Avila is one of our favorite beaches, it is not crowded and there is an awesome park, those are just 2 of the reasons we love Avila. The weather was 80+ degrees and the sun was shining, what more could you ask for? Peyton loved the sand, we thought once she put it in her mouth she wouldn't do it again, we were wrong. She also loved the seagulls, we threw a bunch of graham crackers all around her so they came really close and surrounded her and she was in heaven. Ben loved the water, like always. He was the only one that went all the way in, surprise surprise (said with a sarcastic tone). The cousins had so much fun running in the water and building the sand castle.

Sophie, Ben, Jake, Micah and Brayden all got buried, and loved it.
I love my sisters! Becca, Helga and me, can you believe she is going to have a baby in April?! She is my newest sister -in -law and she is beautiful and sweet and...just one of those people that everyone loves. That could describe Becca too though! I love these girls!!!
This kid is just always so cute and sweet, he looks like a beach bum here in his shorts and Tony Hawk sweatshirt.

My sweet little sand eater, I took this picture while she was in my arms and didn't intentionally mean to get Benji in the background, I think this picture turned out pretty cool, I am so not a great photographer, but I like this one.

I'm trying to get more pictures with me in them, here is my wonderful husband and I.

This Mom sure loves her boys!

My 3 sons, after Ben went all the way in, he is pretty cold here!

Stairstep cousins, these kids got along so well this trip and had so much fun together.

Our family picture, heehee. This is now framed in our bathroom with many other beach trip pictures.

The Laing Family castle compound

These were literally just a few select pictures from our beach trip. It was so much fun and we went a little camera crazy. Hopefully Becca and Helga will post more pics of their families on their blogs, hint hint girls, I'll be checking!

I'm One!

Ok, so I guess my leave of absence is over. I have so much to blog before Peyton's birthday, but I'll get to it later! Peyton turned 1 year old today and on Friday night we had family over to celebrate. Sadly she wasn't feeling very well and she ended up puking all over me, but it was still fun. We had Lasagna and salad and garlic bread, opened presents, and of course let her et her own cake.

She did not want her party hat on!

The boys were very excited to see some different toys than they are used to. They will be such wonderful brothers, I know they'll play with her, they already do.

It was so cute, when we started singing to her she loved it but was confused and looking all around at everyone with a funny smile on her face.

She was very quick to sample her cake but started out pretty politely...
Before too long she dug right in and did more squishing and smearing than eating. Thanks Aunt Mo for giving her a bath!

Peyton has been such a joy to us all. She is a very good and happy baby and loves to crawl and cruise all over the place. She enjoys emptying trash cans and she also likes to put things into her mouth. Right now she is trying out some of my scrapbooking things. Another of her favorite things to do is to rip up toilet paper and tissues, and to dump out the dogs food and water. She knows exactly where to find a practically endless supply of toilet paper, it is also fun to pull the end of it all the way down the hall and rip it up there. Fortunately I've really mellowed out a lot over this type of thing. It is fun to have a girl in the house and to play dress up with her, and I'm looking forward to doing girl hair too. It is also new to me to have a baby that is so petite. Peyton weighs about 10 pounds less at 1 than her brothers did, she is about 17 pounds! Her daddy loves her just like a daddy should love his daughter and I love to see him with her, it melts my heart! I am so sad that this year has gone by so incredibly fast, but it's been a good one and I am going to enjoy every moment I can!

Leave of absence

Ok, so, I have decided to get caught up on my other blog. There are so many cute, funny and insightful things my kids have said that are just sitting unread in my little book. I will continue to update this blog as well, but I'm not going to post them yet. If you are in need of reading material, very quick reads, no pictures, you'll have to check my other blog HERE.

Some things just shouldn't be blogged...

unless of course you're me! I honestly wasn't going to blog this, but I decided to since a few of you were concearned about the low note my Christmas ended on. I am very happy and excited to say that I am going to have a new niece or nephew this year! It will be the first blood related niece or nephew I've ever had. Sadly though, it is my little sister that will be having the baby. She is not married and is just a junior in high school. She has a boyfriend that loves her very much and says he will stick by her through this. That is a lot more than most teen mothers have and I'm thankful for that much anyway. She has me too and I will do what I can to make sure she finishes high school and furthers her education beyond that. I am very blessed to have a wonderful supportive husband and am able to stay at home to raise my children. I wish more than anything that she would not have lost her youth and that she would have had a family in a similar situation to mine. So, it is what it is and I will love that baby just as much, maybe even more than I would had it come into the world under more ideal circumstances. Thank you for your concearn and please pray for my sister and her baby, and most definately for my poor mother!
The last day of the year we went to Avila Beach with lots of family and cousins galore. I've got a lot of great pictures that I'll post soon and we'll be back to happier posts, hopefully!